Moving On

Since the end of October was approaching and we still didn't have a pumpkin, I told D that it's okay if we just skipped the whole pumpkin thing this year. It was a busy October, so it'd be understandable and justifiable to skip this much-loved and highly-anticipated fall tradition. However, D would hear none of it and it was all about getting to that pumpkin patch. He even voiced his disappointment over the rain on Saturday because it prevented us from going to choose our gourd.

So when Ron and Sara voiced interest in pumpkin-picking (when picking up their little guy on Sunday afternoon), that's all D needed to hear--we decided we’d go together.

Ron, Sara, and the baby came back over a few hours later and we all headed over to the local pumpkin patch/orchard/farmers market. Those owners really have something good going on there, the place is always packed! It’s the same place I took my class for apple and pumpkin picking a few weeks ago.

It was nearing dark, so it was chilly which sped up the pumpkin-picking process. We chose a medium-sized one and were going to make one last stop before heading back to the car...until Sara and I spotted the market. Talk about delicious food, both fresh and packaged. And it was around dinnertime and I didn’t have much at home. And we were dying to try the Tortilla con Queso soup (all you had to do was add hot water)...along with their homemade salsa and chips...and their apple cider donuts for dessert. And, well, caramel apples for dessert, too. As these food items kept piling up in our cart, the guys were making a bee line for the cash registers, saying what we had was quite enough. All of us ate for $15, which was a great deal, I thought :0).

Sara and I made dinner when we got back to our place while the guys entertained the baby. He’s mobile now, so I think we got the better end of that deal! After dinner we started the pumpkin-carving process and ended up with this:

D picked out this cat and pumpkin pattern. There was a really cute “BOO!” pattern on the site we use to print out carving patterns, but this year you had to pay for certain ones and, of course, that was one of them. I helped carve, but my main task was to rescue all the seeds being tossed in the garbage pile. I love, love, love eating pumpkin seeds and between the two pumpkins, there were A LOT. Everyone ended up eating—and enjoying—the toasted seeds by night's end. Festive ending to a festive weekend!